The Illinois House voted overwhelmingly Thursday to pass a sweeping education reform bill without changes sought by two major teachers unions.
The legislation, which would lengthen school days, diminish the importance of faculty seniority and make it harder for teachers to strike, was sent to Gov. Pat Quinn’s desk after passing the House 112-1. The bill was negotiated with representatives of business-backed education reform groups and the state’s three largest teachers’ unions at the table, but that rare coalition fractured last week when the Chicago Teachers Union threatened to pull its support if language curtailing their collective bargaining rights was not changed.
The bill’s House sponsor, state Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie (D-Chicago), said the concerns of the unions are not being dismissed and she will run a separate bill through the House once they can agree to language changes.
The Chicago school day and year can be made longer under the bill, changes Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel celebrated at a Thursday afternoon news conference at Kenwood Academy High School.
“It finally gives Chicago Public Schools the ability to undo an injustice,” Emanuel said of the bill, which he actively supported. “There’s no doubt that we have the tools to finally achieve what has always failed at the negotiating table.”
Emanuel said the extended term will prevent schools from being forced to choose between instruction time and other important activities.
“The only reason you’re making a choice of either-or, is because you have a shorter school day,” Emanuel said. “These are false choices. Our kids should be able to have school breakfast, school lunch, not cheated out of academic and instructional time and be in a safe environment.”
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan praised the bill’s “landmark reforms” in a statement and said “every state committed to education reform take notice.”
CTU President Karen Lewis raised concerns about the bill three weeks after it passed the Senate unanimously in April. It took time, she said, for lawyers to review the language.
The bill diminishes the protective value of teacher tenure, allowing school districts greater freedom in making layoff decisions. It also sets a higher threshold for teacher strikes across the state and especially in Chicago.
The language that prompted the CTU’s break with the bill as passed gives the Chicago school board great latitude to lengthen the day or increase class size without offering the CTU recourse. The union also wants language regarding strikes changed. The bill would require a 75 percent vote of CTU members in order to strike. The union wants the trigger to be a 75 percent vote of eligible voting members, rather than the complete membership, which includes retirees who do not have voting rights.
Sen. Kimberly A. Lightford (D-Maywood), the bill’s author who orchestrated the five-month negotiation process, said CTU proposed other changes that were not considered. The details of the possible trailer bill are still being ironed out. Emanuel expressed confidence Thursday that the central provisions would remain intact.
“The guts of this bill cannot be undermined,” he said.
Robin Steans, executive director for Advance Illinois, an education reform organization which participated in the bill’s negotiations, said she doubted the trailer bill will address anything beyond the unions’ two core concerns.
“One way or another this is going to get resolved,” Steans said. “I can never rule anything out when we’re in Springfield, but I would be shocked.”